Photosynthesis
by ThePJ3067
Summary: When Lux notices her teammate Maokai acting strangely in a match, her curiosity gets the better of her, eventually leading to an adventure she never thought of embarking on, with a companion she never expected to accompany.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Lux opened her eyes as she was teleported into the Summoner's Rift for a match. Despite it being an action that she had experienced countless times, she could never get used to the feeling of teleportation. Glancing around the base as she purchased her starting items, Lux noted her allied champions for the coming battle. She saw Mordekaiser, the Master of Metal, who would be taking the middle lane, Lee sin, the Blind Monk, who will provide support from the jungle, the Purifier, Lucian, was advancing towards the bottom lane, where Lux herself would go support him. Lastly, her gaze fell to Maokai, the Twisted Treant, who would be their top laner. She noticed something strange about the treant, as he seemed to grimace in pain before purchasing his starting items. Keeping a mental note in her mind, Lux greeted her teammates brightly, which was largely ignored by everyone except for Lee sin, who raised a hand in greeting before heading off to the jungle. Lux sighed, it was going to be a long match.

A while into the match, Lux's thought was proven right as nothing had really happened in the map. After ensuring that Lucian was farming fine, they managed to force a recall from the enemy Sona. Lucian decided to play it safe, however, as the rival team's jungler was nowhere to be seen. Lux then decided to go roam and help another lane for the time being, as she was relatively healthy enough to not have to recall.

After a rather successful gank at the middle lane, Lux noticed that the enemy jungler, Kha'Zix, had finally shown himself at the top lane for a gank on Maokai. She noticed Lee sin was on the other side of the jungle, and Mordekaiser had already recalled to buy items, so she was the only one within the vicinity. Her summoner pinged that she was on her way, and Lux headed towards the top lane to assist Maokai, who was in full retreat. Upon noticing the Lady of Luminosity, the treant started to turn, along with pings from his summoner, on his pursuers. Lux got the point and fired off her light binding and comboed her abilities with Maokai's to kill Kha'Zix and force the enemy top laner, Riven, to fall back to her tower.

After the action, Maokai looked at her and was about to say something before he started clutching his head and roaring in pain. Lux, who was expecting some sort of thanks, was utterly bewildered at what the treant was experiencing, as there was no enemies near the two of them. After a few seconds, whatever had pained Maokai seemed to subside as he reared back to his full height. Lux was in the process of opening her mouth to question what the treant had just experienced, but then Maokai glared at her with fury in his eyes before cutting her off.

" **Don't ask"**

Lux ate the words which were about to come out of her mouth.

After the match ended, Maokai's strange reaction was still fresh in Lux's mind, and she pondered what was going on with the treant. As far as she knew, nothing like this had ever happened before to Maokai, but then, she did not know too much about the treant. All she knew was that he used to be a peaceful tree spirit in the Shadow Isles before some sort of cursed ritual corrupted and tore the lands asunder. Now that she thought about it, Lux didn't really know much about him at all, and thus headed to the library, in order to see if she could dig up anything useful, since she had no other matches scheduled for the day.

Maokai roared in fury. He was in the Institute's gardens, a place he often went to simply observe the beauty of nature in the area. It was also in this place, where he could remember. He remembered his home, his past, and how he came to be the corrupted, twisted treant he was now. But now, for some reason he couldn't fathom, it seemed like the memories were being forcibly inserted into his mind, so he couldn't even think clearly. All he saw in his mind's eye was the destruction of his forest homeland over and over again. Maokai didn't understand, the memory was never this clear before, never this painful. It was physically hurting him, something which had never happened before.

He had gone straight to the gardens after the match, as the gardens were always a place where he would feel at peace. Now, however, it made him feel even more pain. He clutched his head, lashing out at nothing in particular, leaves and roots flying everywhere in his blind rampage, trying to erase the painful memories from his mind. He still didn't know why this was happening, he had always been in control of himself before, and had never succumbed to his vengeful rage, and especially not to this caliber. After a while of causing fury in the gardens, Maokai calmed down a bit to notice a figure in the entrance, and he had no idea how long the figure had been there.

Lux stared at the destruction in front of her. She had been walking back from the library after a fruitless search which yielded nothing exceedingly useful before she heard some sort of commotion coming from the gardens. Running to the entrance to the gardens, she took in the treant's spree of destruction with shock. She had seen champions go crazy before, but Maokai never was one of those champions, even with the little she knew of him.

That was when she looked back and noticed him staring straight at her.

 **A/N: I got this random inspiration to write about Maokai, and one thing led to another, and I somehow came up with this story. Now, this story's rating MIGHT be bumped up to M in the future, but that will be due to fight/violent scenes, and not for any wierd lemon you can think of between Lux and Maokai...**

 **Oh god why.**

 **Anyways, please review, follow if you like it, don't follow if you don't. I apologize for any grammar or spelling errors as I don't have a alpha/beta and am just writing this for personal recreation. Have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The great oak tree glowered at Lux, who stared back at him, with no reaction in the slightest. Lux noticed that his eyes were full of rage, but she also noticed the pain he was hiding and undoubtedly suffering from. The pain from earlier again, she thought, but was interrupted by the treant's gnarly voice.

" **Speak of this to no one, or I shall end you."**

Maokai moved closer to Lux, his fist crackling with arcane energy, raised in a threatening manner. The girl, however, ceased to make any reaction or movement whatsoever. Taking that as a cue to leave, Maokai turned around to leave, taking a few steps away, but then stopped when he heard Lux's voice behind him.

"Why do you hide the pain? What is causing you to feel this? How long has it been happening?"

It was as if questioning about the pain brought it back in full force. Maokai growled menacingly and swiped his arm forward, where Lux yelped and leapt back just in time to avoid it, albeit hitting the ground painfully. She turned around and looked back to see the treant already walking away down the corridor. I was too hasty there, she thought to herself, as she started the walk back to her room.

The memories tormented him with every step he took. He clutched his head with both arms, but it did nothing to repress the pain. With a final almighty roar, he smashed his head into a wall of the Institute, welcoming the darkness of unconsciousness.

He saw sunlight. Bright, streaming rays of gold flowing to his eyes. Blinking away the light, he looked around him. Towering trees and canopies of green covered his vision. He heard animals and critters skittering about around him. He was in a massive forest, teeming with life, radiating an aura of peace and tranquility. He felt free and light, then he saw he was no longer bound by physical means. He was a spirit. However, he also felt another force within the area. The feeling of magic, was practically weighing the air down around him. Never had he felt such a massive concentrated source of magic. Except once, in a place he had long forgotten.

The Shadow Isles. Before its corruption. Memories flowed back to him. Memories that he tried to repress and lock away forever. Memories which all came flowing back to him in full force. He saw a series of images. Visions constructed from whatever memories still remained. Pieced back together to the best of his ability. He was a forest spirit, the strongest of his kind, in his home of the sacred forest within the Shadow Isles. He was at peace with the lands. Then he saw them. A large number of robed figures approached the forest at various angles. Maokai eyed them with suspicion, but neglected to act. Then they channeled and casted a spell together, drawing on the magic within the forest. Maokai recognized the spell, it was a deeply forbidden spell, with the intent of causing the ultimate caster to be master over death itself. However, before he could even place why the magi would even attempt such a risky ritual, another figure appeared within the center of the forest. It seemed to be a very prominent man, whom all the other magi answered to, due to his noticeably more elaborate garb.

Maokai decided that it had gone on long enough. With spiritual power, he charged towards the figure invading his homeland and was about to strike him when he noticed something odd. The leaves, the trees, and even the soil were starting to look mottled and decayed. Forgetting all about the intruder, Maokai took in the sight before him. His home of nature and life was rapidly turning into a desolate wasteland by the extremely powerful incantation. He could do nothing but stare in horror as leaves dried out to be carried by the wind, trees and animals alike dying in front of his eyes with no explicable cause, and the once rich and fertile soil looking sickly and corrupted. From all corners of the forest, he saw the corruption rapidly advance inwards, threatening to consume the entire landscape into death.

He would not allow that while he lived. Ignoring the figure he was originally aiming for, Maokai rushed past him instead to the great, ancient oak tree which inhabited the center of the forest. Using all of his power, he fused his spirit with the tree, giving himself a physical incarnation, but more importantly, preserving the last shred of life the forest had remaining. He then swiped away the figure which he presumed to be the head mage away from the tree and then channeled a spell to fight the remaining magi.

After a long battle, Maokai finally defeated all the magi with his new physical form, albeit at a steep cost. The great oak was withered with corruption, looking as if it was already a dead tree. However, inside the tree, Maokai knew that there was still hope for his forest to be restored to its former glory. He looked back to his former home, before turning around to depart, in search for a method to reverse the effects of the ritual of corruption.

However, something felt wrong. Maokai heard it before he felt it. The crackling of magic behind him, signifying a spell being cast. Needless to say, he was completely helpless to prevent it, and he felt a massive pain on his back, which then radiated throughout his body. The pain was something he had never experienced before, not on such a massive scale. The spell was turning the corruption on his body and amplifying the magnitude across him. He roared with pain, before looking towards the mage, catching a glimpse of his face before he pulled his hood back up and spoke to him.

"I'll spare you this time, as my orders do not concern you. But I am forced to make you leave the island."

With that said, the mage started to cast a teleportation spell, which prompted Maokai to attempt to stand up and disrupt him. However, he was too late, and just as Maokai raised his arcane fist to smash the mage to a pulp, all went black. The last thing he heard was the mage sneering at him.

"Goodbye, abomination."

Maokai awoke with a roar;

" **Give me back my home, you fiend!"**

That was when he noticed he was back in the institute's walls again, in the same spot where he blacked out earlier. Confused as to what happened, Maokai growled in pain, until he noticed that the pain he was feeling was exactly the same pain he felt when the mage shot the spell of corruption at him. Grumbling in mystification, Maokai glanced around hurriedly before limping back to his quarters.

In his haste, however, he failed to notice the tuft of blonde hair poking around the corridor which quickly darted away after witnessing the whole commotion.

 **A/N: I apologize for the long delay, but I've got a lot of university work lately, as well as volunteering for a bunch of other activities, so I practically have no free time on my hands. Expect extremely irregular updates. I have no beta reader or anything of the sort, just good old spell checker, so I apologize for any grammar mistakes in advance.**

 **I never actually expected to continue this story as I have recently quit playing League of Legends, but I got a random motivation from checking my email one day and seeing someone following it. Thus, please rate and review, it would mean a lot to me. If you have any criticism/story ideas, hit me up with a PM or a review, whichever you prefer.**

 **Hope you enjoyed the read.**

 **Peace.**


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